Tag Archives: perfume

*I received this book from the publisher (Harper) via TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

Some scents sparkle and then quickly disappear, like the effervescence of citrus zest or a bright note of mint. Some are strange siren songs of rarer origin that call from violets hidden in woodland, or irises after spring rain. Some scents release a rush of half-forgotten memories. And then there are the scents that seem to express truths about people and places that you have never forgotten: the scents that make time stand still.

It is the place in this novel that is so enigmatic and elusive. Crumbling walls and uneven floors, the home itself has secrets: floorboards that lift and reveal hidden holes, irremovable stains, doors that lead nowhere. The two women feel this about the house but are wary of laying those secrets bare. The Lantern is essentially a mystery, but it’s also a Gothic tale, dark and evocative.

I wanted to love this book, and had I never read Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, I may have. If you’ve read that novel, you know that what Du Maurier excels at is creating a Gothic setting and increasing the suspense notch by notch before revealing the awful truth of Rebecca. However, if you already know the culmination of that story, The Lantern will feel very much like a cheap knockoff; it looks similar, but it’s not quite as good. This isn’t to say that Deborah Lawrenson isn’t a talented author, she is; however, Du Maurier’s masterpiece works because of the writing and the story itself. The Lantern fails at introducing anything new or noteworthy in terms of Dom and Eve’s plot.